Love Letter

Lynne:

I was stepping out of the bathroom when Fred told me that Luke had called and would stay with us for a week or so. I hadn't planned on Ian still being there when Luke showed up, but I couldn't get him out soon enough. He was going to be going to a few different interviews. I could tell on the look on Ian's face before he left that he was livid, but what should I care... He was the one who lied to me. I didn't need to explain to him why a guy who still had feelings for me was staying with us.

"So Ian is still around?" Luke said after he had left. I felt the overlong hug was his way of marking his territory on me again. I would have sidestepped it, but part of me wanted Ian to feel as bad as I had the few days... months after I left Light Falls.

I purposely picked out the purple dress with my black knee-high boots for work today, hoping feeling pretty would help with how today would go.

I walked into Jimmy's lobby. Patricia looked up at me. I was five minutes early. "He is not in yet. If he comes in, they will page for you," she says before looking back at her computer screen. I feel like we could have been friends if I had not yelled at her on the phone the night I found out Cannon River was Ian. Did she even know who Ian was? Or was she out of the small circle who really knew who Ian was? I head for my cubicle feeling defeated; I had wasted wearing this dress, Ian would not see it.

"Who was that yesterday?" Mandy asks when I get back to my cubicle.

"Ian," I say, shrugging.

"How come yesterday was my first time hearing about Ian?" she asks.

I shrug, not really feeling like going into this. She lets me know she is annoyed at me for leaving out how I had a hot man at my beck and call. Her words, not mine. I help Mandy go through boring articles for a client when Marge lets me know that Jimmy is ready to see me now.

"Jimmy?" Mandy mouths to me. I step around her. "I thought he was on vacation for a while?" she asks. Mandy was the office gossip and knew everything about everyone. Even people working on different floors knew who they were and their story.

"I guess not," I say, picking my notes up off of my desk, knowing that Jimmy is not waiting for me. I walk past Patricia, not feeling like receiving an evil eye from her, and step into Jimmy's office.

"Good afternoon," Ian says coldly, his eyes sweeping my body, and I smile on the inside, knowing I didn't waste wearing this dress after all. I take the seat in front of the desk even though today Ian is sitting on the couch on the left side of the room facing the window. "Lunch will be here soon, so we will start after that," he says.

"I ate lunch already," I say, not wanting to have another awkward lunch with him.

"What did you have?" he asks, staring straight at me, and he knows he is calling my bluff. Patricia walks in a few minutes later with lunch giving me the stink eye.

"She really does not like me," I say, shivering from her look.

"Don't you know who that is?" he asks.

"Yes... Patricia," I say, looking back at him like he is losing it.

He laughs. "I thought you would have figured that out. Patricia is from my first novel published. She is the retiring sectary that finds Greta for Mark," he says, looking at me as understanding hits my eyes.

"That's... what... How did you know her before you started working here?" I ask, confused with the timing.

"My second novel about the runaway mom was actually my first novel ever written. I started The Last Dream while that one was being edited. But after getting the rough copy for The Last Dream, Jimmy wanted it as my first one published. Something about timing; I knew the whole time that it was the better novel," he says, picking at the Chinese food on the coffee table. There was sweet and sour chicken which I had told him was my favorite Chinese entrée at some point during the holidays.